Jonah 1: Teaching/Preaching
Notes
Transcript
Running From God!
Running From God!
EOT-God calls and commission Jonah and Jonah Flees God's presence!
Jonah Main Idea of the Passage
Jonah 1:1–3 introduces a surprising commission from God from which Jonah flees. His flight, however, takes a downward direction, and Jonah begins descending toward the realm of chaos and death.
EOS-Three reasons why we should not run from God
He has given us a clear call
We have the privilege of responding
God will get our attention
DDS-How are you running from God
Introduction
For Eighteen years of my life I willingly ran from God.
My mom tried to bring us to church at different times
Grandma-telling me the story about Samson and my little brother Richard tries to terrorize me and i push him away.
Trevor
Church Camp
Wanted to go to the NBA -Sean Carter
Then I became a Christian.
But you know what I realized, even though I have trusted Jesus and have a relationship with him there are still times that instead of running with God that I run from him.
You know over this COVID time I wish I would have ran towards God and with God instead of away from God.
Can you think of a time when you really ran from God?
Are you running from God right now?
Today we are going to be in a book from the Old Testament
We should not run from God because:
We should not run from God because:
1. He has given us a clear call (1-2).
1. He has given us a clear call (1-2).
The word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,
God is the hound of heaven.
No matter how hard we run or how far we are from God, the God of the Bible initiates with us.
God loved us even when we were unlovable.
You can never take God by surprise. You can never anticipate Him. He always makes the first move. He is always there “in the beginning.” Before man existed, God acted. Before man stirs himself to seek God, God sought man, in the Bible, we do not see man groping after God; we see God reaching after man.
John Stott, Basic Christianity
“Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
Jonah 1. The Commission: A Challenge to Parochial Prophecy (1:1a–2d)
The description of Nineveh as “great” may also recall the spies’ description of the Canaanite city-states that so intimidated them. In Num 13:28 ten of the spies report to the people, “and the cities are well-fortified and very intimidating” (wĕheʿārîm bĕṣurôt gĕdōlōt mĕʾōd). No doubt Jonah’s contemporaries in both Israel and Judah felt at least as much trepidation regarding the chief Assyrian cities like Nineveh as they had the Canaanite cities they faced in the conquest.
What was Nineveh:
Picture God sending you to Al Quid-a. This city was known for brutality.
Give some examples.
Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible A. Jonah’s attempt to flee from God 1:1–3
Suppose God called some Jew living during the Hitler regime to go to Berlin and prophesy publicly that God was going to destroy Nazi Germany unless the Germans repented. The possibility of the Germans repenting and God withholding judgment on them would have been totally repugnant to such a Jew. His racial patriotism would have conflicted with his fidelity to God just as Jonah’s did.
Could you picture to going to a place where they hate you and telling them judgment was coming. God apparently knew that Jonah being an outsider would actually be an advantage and not a disadvantage.
Jonah was not going there to play patty-cakes, he was going there to say thus says the Lord.
Joe Gober- Operation world God’s heart for the nations. Joy is going to the nations. God loves America, but he is even greater than that he loves the world.
Application:
God’s Call to us today is just as clear as it was to Jonah.
Call of Salvation-GOSPEL
Call to Love God and others-There are a lot of commands in the Bible, but if you are a follower of Jesus they are summed up like this.
Call to make disciples-
Specific thing you are to do.
The first reasons we should not run from God is because the call is clear. But there is another reason;
We should not run from God because:
We should not run from God because:
2. we slip really fast (3).
2. we slip really fast (3).
When God calls us to something there is always a response.
Then I said,
“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
Peter-Get away from me Lord I am a sinful man.
Many times when God appeared to people in the Bible they would see the perfection and holiness of God in such a way that they would be overtaken and say your are great and I am not.
Jonah missed God in this invitation.
But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. So he went down to Joppa, found a ship which was going to Tarshish, paid the fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
Jonah was like God I want nothing to do with being in your presence.
Slipping starts with one step!
You don’t think you are going to gain 20 pounds with one bad meal.
David did not think he would commit adultery and murder because he wanted a break from war.
Jonah did not think he would end up in the belly of a whale because he went down to Tarshish.
“Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”
This decline did not start with something great it started with a step away from God.
Tarshish was the name of one of Noah’s great grandsons. What is important is God called Noah to a specific place and he went the exact opposite way.
This is a reminder that we can not stay on the fence with God we are either pursuing God or running from God.
We either seek God or we reject God.
Jonah thought if he ran then God would pick another prophet.
He wanted safety more than he wanted God’s presence.
Chronicles of Narnia: God is not safe!
When we flee from the presence of God we take control and really become our own God.
If we can remove God we literal become our own boss.
Sin costs!
He had to pay his fare. Romans 6:23 says for the wages of sin is death. There is a cost to our sin.
Jonah had to pay money and he would literally end up in the belly of a whale.
I saw this picture on facebook yesterday where a guy canoeing was literally about to get eaten by a whale. Could you picture being in the belly of a whale.
When I really think about sin costing someone I think about David. David was a man after God’s own heart and he commited a sin of adultery and then murder and God forgave him. But as a result he had a son who kicked him out of his own kingdom and took slept with his concubines in front of all of Israel.
Sin can cost you your marriage
Sin can cost you your job
Sin can cost you close friendship
Sin can cost you your eternity.
Application:
How close are you to God right now?
We can be as close to God as we want to be.
Are you slipping
As one worship song says:
The more I seek you the more I find you!
The more I find you, the more I love you.
Are you running from God right now?
“If a commission by an earthly king is considered an honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?”
― David Livingstone
The times that I run from God and slip I forfeit the honor to serve the king of kings!
We should not run from God because:
We should not run from God because:
3. he will rebuke us (4).
3. he will rebuke us (4).
I looked up the word in a dictionary.
rebuke
■ verb criticize or reprimand sharply.
Man I want to go to RCC church because they give some great rebukes.
No people don’t say this.
No one likes rebukes. I have to rebuke my kids and they don’t generally say thanks dad.
Most people giving the rebuke are not like: “Yes I get to rebuke someone today.” There are a couple of friends I have who are like that but I don’t think that this is the good part of their personality.
The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up.
We see that God initiated with Jonah. Jonah responds with complete rejection and now God responds with a rebuke.
What is God’s tool of Rebuke the wind.
This reminds me of the story of the bible where the disciples are in the boat. It is storming. God can calm the winds in our life but he can also speed them up.
God can get our attention: he brought me to a school I was too good for to show me that my greatest purpose in life was not putting a little ball in a basket but that my greatest purpose in life was having a relationship with HIm.
Even in a year like this God is greater than COVID!